Time For Operation Dear Abby Iv

Dear Readers: Can you believe it`s time for Operation Dear Abby IV? Once again, we will join forces with the America Remembers campaign, whose national chairman is still Donald P. Grimes.

Last year, Operation Dear Abby III sent an estimated 3 million pieces of mail to our servicemen and women stationed in Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Iceland and Europe, as well as those serving in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. Tons of letters and packages were dropped from helicopters to aircraft carriers to cheer those who had been deployed for weeks-some for months.

Schoolteachers in the United States and Canada made class projects of writing to our servicemen and women who would be away from their families during the holidays. Women and men who love to bake sent cookies, brownies and fruitcakes. The elderly residents of the Jewish Center for the Aged in St. Louis baked 21 dozen kosher cookies, under strict rabbinical supervision.

(They received letters of gratitude from Marines and sailors in Okinawa who enjoyed ``the sweet touch of home.``)

I received hundreds of heartwarming pictures of men and women in uniform- jubilant as they eagerly sorted through thousands of letters, searching for some from their home states.

Veterans of previous wars wrote to give our young servicemen and women a lift because they remember how rough it was to be away from home for the holidays.

Romances blossomed-and some weddings took place following long pen-pal relationships.

This year, more than 100,000 troops will participate in the program. Please join me in this campaign to let them know that you love and appreciate them. Send as many Christmas and Hanukkah cards as you can. Last year, many readers wrote to say that they were overwhelmed at the responses they received from grateful servicemen and women.